The Black Keys – “Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth” & “Black Mud Part II”
Here’s a daunting realization: The Black Keys have been releasing albums for almost 20 years. They’ve been a couple different bands in that time. For years, they were prolific purveyors of a scuzzy, heavy garage indie-blues, each album offering a slight variation or refinement on a pretty immediately established theme. But 10 years ago, there was a pivot point in their career. They released Brothers, and everything began to change.
Brothers was, of course, the Black Keys’ big breakthrough, the beginning of their insurgence into some bizarre mainstream prospect. Suddenly, singles from that album were ubiquitous — licensed everywhere, just in the air, whatever. It set the stage for the Black Keys becoming a legit big band, and it partially achieved that by broadening their sound. That included making room for the hooky, poppier material that allowed Black Keys to cross over. To this day, Brothers has a whole lot of tracks that are liable to get stuck in your head at random moments.
The sessions that yielded Brothers also begat some songs we hadn’t heard before. Late last year, the Black Keys announced they’d be reissuing the album for its anniversary, and this new expansion would feature a couple outtakes. One of those was “Chop And Change,” which wasn’t on the album but was available on one of the Twilight soundtracks. In addition, there’s two previously unheard tracks: “Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth” and “Black Mud Part II.” The deluxe reissue has been out for a bit physically, but these songs are now available online for the first time. Happy new year, here are some new/old Black Keys songs!
Hear the entire Brothers reissue here.